Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:6565 comp.sys.amiga:12009
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!ukma!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!decvax!tektronix!tekcrl!tekfdi!videovax!stever
From: stever@videovax.Tek.COM (Steven E. Rice, P.E.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multi-tasking? A nightmare...
Message-ID: <4752@videovax.Tek.COM>
Date: 22 Dec 87 19:40:00 GMT
References: <2027@bath63.ux63.bath.ac.uk> <2969@cbmvax.UUCP> <3243@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <7403@sunybcs.UUCP>
Reply-To: stever@videovax.Tek.COM (Steven E. Rice, P.E.)
Organization: Tektronix Television Systems, Beaverton, Oregon
Lines: 38
Summary: The user doesn't even have to know!

In lots of articles, with lots of words, the debate has raged about
multitasking -- is it useful to all, or is it just for the "power
user"?  (I thought *I* was a power user -- after all, I pay my
electric bill every month. . .)

The user doesn't even have to know that he is using a multitasking
system to derive benefits from it.  As programmers become more familiar
with the Amiga, the use of multitasking within what looks like a "single
program" will increase.

Think of a text editor or word processor that spawns a low-priority
process to perform all I/O, passing the data back and forth to the
main module via messages.  The editor can now be used on files that
are much larger than main memory, because it is no longer necessary
to have everything in memory at once.  Because the I/O process can
run asynchronously, it can keep the editor supplied with the
appropriate parts of the file with no obvious delays.

This same idea could be used by game designers to reduce or eliminate
the delays associated with loading a new "room" or whatever.  If
sufficient memory is available, a low-priority process can load in the
closest new piece of the landscape.  Then, if the user enters the room,
the data is already in memory, requiring just a fast transfer.  If the
user goes the other way, nothing has been lost -- the CPU cycles would
have been wasted otherwise (remember, we're postulating a "non-power"
user who won't run two things at once).

And yes, this could be done without multitasking, but it is easy with
multitasking.  This will encourage the proliferation of programs that
use multitasking internally.  And we'll all benefit -- even the
non-power users!

					Steve Rice

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* JESUS Is The REASON For The SEASON!  (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year) *
new: stever@videovax.tv.Tek.com
old: {decvax | hplabs | ihnp4 | uw-beaver}!tektronix!videovax!stever